Selinunte: Mandrake In The Land Of Wild Celery

En route: odd patterns in a dried gourd. Look like colonies of a microorganism, spreading as did ancient Greek colonies like Selinunte, where we are headed

Turban-like almond biscuits, bought alongside olives and a can of olive oil

Arriving alongside the old city ruins

Selinunte horizon

Hallucinogenic mandrake

Looking inland

Hilltop ruin from our speeding coach

A wonderful German guide took us around the ruins of Selinunte today, in a landscape once known for its wild celery. Playful and knowledgeable, she pointed out a mandrake plant, which has a singularly complex history – and wondered whether it might have had something to do with the tale of Sleeping Beauty? A glorious place, but with an easy-to-overlook and bitter history of war and destruction.

Like so many things in my life, blog entries blur the boundaries between the personal and the professional. As explained on the Home Page, the website and the blog are part platform for ongoing projects, part autobiography, and part accountability mechanism.

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John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.